On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization announced that they are moving up the current status of the Swine Flu to level 6 – the highest level possible, which indicates a world pandemic.
When I heard the news I have to tell you I was more than shocked. I was floored! What was the basis for such a decision? Where and how did this come about?
Despite the fact that I stay away from the mainstream news media, simply because just as I do not like my food processed, I do not want my information processed, I felt compelled to read a few news stories regarding this, to see what they were telling the public.
I could not figure out, how just over 27, 000 cases of this disease could warrant a full blown pandemic? The pieces just did not fit together. However, as I dug deeper and thought more about this, the picture began to take on an eerie clarity.
Who, What, When and Why?
If you are unaware of where things stand at this point where the swine flu is concerned, then you are not alone. The media has since the main outbreak, become oddly silent about the whole issue. Perhaps people got bored of it or perhaps there was more interesting news to report on. Either way, the WHO’s decision to make this a level 6 pandemic came as a surprise to many people. However, some experts have said that this was inevitable and they had been expecting it even earlier.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) have stated that:
WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus.
So although around 27,000 cases is not that big of a deal where a pandemic is concerned, the fact that it has spread to over 70 countries seems to be.
This is indeed a new virus and there is controversy how it started and came about in the first place, but I will not be covering those controversies here. What is fact is that despite its novelty, most people are affected by it just as they would be by any other flu and very few cases are severe or have ended in death.
The justification for this decision seems to come again from that fact that it has spread to so many countries. This is obviously due to the wide range of international travel that we have today. The second reasoning from many health organizations is that they are concerned how serious it will be next fall, when flu season is typical in the Northern Hemisphere. Right now perhaps most are lucky as, cold and flu viruses are not widespread during the warm months.
So, so far the majority of the world is not affected. While we wish that no one was affected, 27,000 out of nearly 7 billion people is nothing to start panicking about. In Canada for example, only 12 people have died – and almost always, people who die from any flu have other underlying health issues. So, we as individuals should not take this decision out of context. Also we have to keep in mind, that moving to pandemic level 6, does not mean we will see an increase in the number of deaths or very severe cases.
The medical buildings and hospitals, have stepped up their protocols, especially where sanitation procedures are concerned. There is more stress and work expectations infiltrating those areas, and hence their work and environment at this time is far from pleasant.
The governments will be scrambling no matter what, because any increase in disease cases means more money lost to health care – at least in Canada and other countries that cover basic health care.
But there is one more big piece of the puzzle here – the drug companies.
On the day that the WHO announced that the swine flu is now considered a pandemic, I had the chance of reading several news articles on this subject and almost all of them had 1 big thing in common – the talk about vaccines.
On the first day that the WHO declared this pandemic, numerous articles were citing that aggressive action will be taken to get a swine flu vaccine out to the public. The CDC states:
Vaccines are a very important part of a response to pandemic influenza and the U.S. Government is aggressively taking early steps in the process to manufacture a novel H1N1 vaccine, working closely with manufacturers.
The drug companies have already been contacted and are as we speak working on a new vaccine for the H1N1 flu virus. Although it may take 4-6 months to fully prepare, under these circumstances it will be a rushed process nonetheless, as medical personnel want the vaccine ready before this fall’s flu season.
So What’s The Problem?
The problems with all this are as follows:
Although the WHO has rules in place for what constitutes a pandemic and what doesn’t – this new virus would never have reached the depths it did, if it were not for international travel. It is still a mild virus and affecting a tiny percentage. According to the WHO, regular flu is estimated to kill 250,000 to 500,000 people each year. This one does not even come close. Most people up to now have required very little if any hospitalization and recover normally within days. Hence at this time there is more fear-mongering going on than anything else.
The economy is down and I am sorry, but drug companies are always looking to make extra money. Perhaps this is just a wild assumption on my part, but I smell a drug company affiliation in this decision big time. If this vaccine gets developed, a nation wide vaccination program will be put in place. Do you realize how much money that is for the drug companies?
The company chosen to develop this vaccine is none other than the US based company Baxter. Baxter has been recently involved in a bird flu scandal, where vaccines where tainted with the deadly bird flu virus. As Laurie Garrett states in an article entitled “The Next Pandemic?“, ”Unlike chemical compounds, vaccines and most other biological products are difficult to make and can easily become contaminated.”
Seasonal flu vaccines often are the cause of the flu for many people. Now translate that to this case scenario. Can you imagine you are a healthy person with no risk for any flu, you go get vaccinated and walk away with the swine flu?
Because there is a scare underway at this point, due to the fact that the swine flu has been labelled a “pandemic”, the making of this vaccine will be rushed. Good luck with proper trials and testing of this one. Errors and contaminations are inevitable. As wjz.com states in an article on the swine flu pandemic ”The declaration of a pandemic does, however, push drugmakers to fast-track production of a swine flu vaccine.”
In 1976 there was a swine flu scare in the United States which prompted a mass immunization. “On March 24, 1976 President Gerald Ford announced on television that he was asking Congress for $135 million “to inoculate every man, woman and child in the United States” against swine flu.” This lead to more than 500 people developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder, after receiving the vaccine and 25 died. The vaccine killed more people than the flu in that time. We would hope history does not repeat itself again.
If the government and other agencies cared as much as they say they do, they would immediately put an educational program in place to tell people how to boost their immune system. Here is an idea: simply by stopping drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, starting to exercise and stopping eating garbage food, we immensely increase our immunity. But for many people that is somehow not an option. They prefer the risky vaccine instead. Go figure… If you are serious about your health and improving your immunity, read the article I wrote “10 Ways to Protect Yourself Against the Swine Flu.”
Conclusion
Ultimately, education is the key. There is no doubt in my mind that there is so much more to this story from start to end than meets the eye. If we think that we know what is going on behind closed doors, then we are greatly naive.
No matter what, for me personally, even if I was afraid of the swine flu or any other infectious disease of the same caliber, which I am not, I would do everything I can to clean up my body and boost my natural lines of defence – mainly the immune system.
We as humans have been made to feel that our bodies are less than adequate at protecting us and that we need some “chemical substance” which will save us or heal us. That cannot be further from the truth. Our bodies are strong and well equipped to protect us from EVERYTHING, if we only give them the right support.
The reason I am not afraid of the swine flu and would never dream of getting this or any other similar vaccine, is because I know that everything that I am doing in my life, from food and thoughts to the type of personal products I use and exercise, supports my body instead of giving it more work and stress, so that it is unable to defend itself properly.
And hence should it come to a mass vaccination, I just hope that you do your research before, instead of blindly putting your faith and trust in institutions that have much more at stake than your health.
Read here what more people are saying about this issue: